• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 09:39
CEST 15:39
KST 22:39
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru3BGE Stara Zagora 2025: Info & Preview27Code S RO12 Preview: GuMiho, Bunny, SHIN, ByuN3The Memories We Share - Facing the Final(?) GSL47Code S RO12 Preview: Cure, Zoun, Solar, Creator4
Community News
BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack2Weekly Cups (June 2-8): herO doubles down1[BSL20] ProLeague: Bracket Stage & Dates9GSL Ro4 and Finals moved to Sunday June 15th13Weekly Cups (May 27-June 1): ByuN goes back-to-back0
StarCraft 2
General
The SCII GOAT: A statistical Evaluation Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing DreamHack Dallas 2025 - Official Replay Pack BGE Stara Zagora 2025 - Replay Pack Code S RO8 Preview: Rogue, GuMiho, Solar, Maru
Tourneys
[GSL 2025] Code S:Season 2 - RO8 - Group A Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) Bellum Gens Elite: Stara Zagora 2025 $3,500 WardiTV European League 2025
Strategy
[G] Darkgrid Layout Simple Questions Simple Answers [G] PvT Cheese: 13 Gate Proxy Robo
Custom Maps
[UMS] Zillion Zerglings
External Content
Mutation # 477 Slow and Steady Mutation # 476 Charnel House Mutation # 475 Hard Target Mutation # 474 Futile Resistance
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion BGH auto balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ FlaSh Witnesses SCV Pull Off the Impossible vs Shu StarCraft & BroodWar Campaign Speedrun Quest Will foreigners ever be able to challenge Koreans?
Tourneys
[ASL19] Grand Finals [BSL20] GosuLeague RO16 - Tue & Wed 20:00+CET NA Team League 6/8/2025 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues
Strategy
I am doing this better than progamers do. [G] How to get started on ladder as a new Z player
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Path of Exile What do you want from future RTS games? Armies of Exigo - YesYes?
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
LiquidLegends to reintegrate into TL.net
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Vape Nation Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Maru Fan Club Serral Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Korean Music Discussion [Manga] One Piece
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion NHL Playoffs 2024
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
A Better Routine For Progame…
TrAiDoS
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Heero Yuy & the Tax…
KrillinFromwales
I was completely wrong ab…
jameswatts
Need Your Help/Advice
Glider
Trip to the Zoo
micronesia
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 30835 users

WESG Retrospective - Part 1: National Competition

Blogs > BluemoonSC
Post a Reply
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-01-30 20:47:15
January 30 2017 20:46 GMT
#1
Now that I’m back in the world of the living and have my head on my shoulders I can properly write about what was easily the best trip of my life. I had a really bad fever and bronchitis that I contracted when I returned home thanks to little sleep and airplane germs which prevented me from getting this out sooner, so apologies!

The Level of Competition in ‘National Esports’

For those of you that followed the tournament all of the way through, Alibaba’s goal with a tournament of this calibre was to create a national-level tournament for esports, akin to the Olympics. In theory this is pretty cool, but I think the fact that most Dota teams are not made up of individuals from the same country makes this goal a bit of a pipe dream. While we got to see teams like Alliance, TNC, and Horde perform, it still doesn’t have the hype that other premiere matchups like the EGs and VPs can bring to the stage.

Even from China, you’d think that there would be more teams itching to see if they could get a cut of that $800,000 top prize. Yet, we’re left with relatively unknown teams playing in the qualifiers; teams I didn’t even know existed! For reference, only 2 of the teams that participated in the Chinese qualifier have Liquipedia pages and one of them didn’t even make it out of the groups. Where were the Chinese players in a hometown event with a good sized purse? Allegedly, ACE had a hand in making sure that this would be the case, but why?

I can only speculate here, but my guess is the timings didn’t pan out due to several events surrounding the qualifiers and main event. DPL, MDL, ESL and DAC qualifiers come to mind as well as preparation for the Boston Major. We saw teams dropping from Dreamleague for similar reasons and DreamHack is already a well-known, prestigious league so this wouldn’t be too far-fetched. While some think that the prize pool was encroaching on their own domestic tournament offerings, it is far more likely that the DAC qualifier timing played a huge part into this.

Timing concerns aside, compare this style to individual esports like Starcraft and Hearthstone and you see the differences in the quality of matchups. Having a TY vs Maru Grand Final was pretty much something any Starcraft fan would be happy to watch. Even the Hearthstone playoffs were full of players that a noob like myself was able to recognize and be happy with! For 1v1 esports (and with the use of qualifier events, of course) I think that this style of tournament is different and great! Not all tournaments should be the same, so to see one with a different qualification style like WESG is great. However, currently I do not see team esports in the same position as other sports such as the World Cup.

Unless teams are already naturally nationally homogenous, what reason do players have to practice with a national squad? For the one or two times a year that these kinds of tournaments pop up, there is very little incentive to deviate from practice with your main roster. The prize pool was certainly prestigious, but taking part in multiple events with smaller purses is likely more appealing when you require a lot of chemistry to excel in team games. It might be possible to allow one foreign player, but then the allure of a nation-based tournament completely dissolves, in my opinion. That being said, I am not really sure how you would go about fixing this format to be better. Alibaba could just leave it the way it is, but I do not see them offering the same level of cash for the sub-Olympic quality of games that we got.

All national “issues” aside, at bare minimum, the tournament was a lot of fun. Multi-game events are always interesting for me, and in particular this event, because I follow several games pretty regularly. While I couldn’t get as much into the CSGO portion of the event because I don’t follow the random players and teams that made it to the Shanghai final, all of the Dota, Starcraft, and Hearthstone main stage games were enjoyable for me. In the second part of this blog, I’ll be talking about that more when I discuss how the event treated the media (spoiler alert: they did a great job).
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Sn0_Man
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
Tebellong44238 Posts
January 30 2017 20:49 GMT
#2
I thought the ACE boycott had to do with WESG being run by alibaba and ACE being owned by competitors of some variety
LiquidDota StaffSCIENTISTS BAFFLED | 3275929302
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
January 30 2017 20:50 GMT
#3
It's possible, but I feel like there would have been more outrage if it was purely competition a la PEA - I can't find a single English article on it though.
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Sn0_Man
Profile Blog Joined October 2012
Tebellong44238 Posts
January 30 2017 20:53 GMT
#4
Thats because the only thing less relevant than wesg is what the english media think of chinese teams attending wesg
LiquidDota StaffSCIENTISTS BAFFLED | 3275929302
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
January 30 2017 21:03 GMT
#5
On January 31 2017 05:53 Sn0_Man wrote:
Thats because the only thing less relevant than wesg is what the english media think of chinese teams attending wesg


I do think that the reason that it was not as relevant as it should be was likely because of the quality of teams involved
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Shrinkzxo
Profile Blog Joined August 2014
Dotoland672 Posts
January 31 2017 00:43 GMT
#6
WESG wouldn't play ball.
https://twitter.com/shrinkzxo
Maverick_2009
Profile Joined December 2014
Somewhere2002 Posts
January 31 2017 01:28 GMT
#7
how many parts is this gonna be, just outta curiosity
https://www.twitch.tv/deso_739
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
January 31 2017 04:08 GMT
#8
On January 31 2017 10:28 2009 wrote:
how many parts is this gonna be, just outta curiosity

i think just a second one that talks about what they did well and not so well for the media
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Yurie
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
11790 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-01-31 06:16:08
January 31 2017 06:12 GMT
#9
I think the big problem with team games here is that there aren't multiple teams in each nation. If you take football in England you have around 44 teams that have full time players. (Maybe a bit more.) This means the best players are spread out over many teams and you never see them play together. In Dota you have nations that can't field 5 full time players, thus making the discussion about all-star teams over multiple nations and leagues a bit anti-climatic.

In football not many think the national teams would beat the best teams in the most exclusive leagues. They practice together a lot more and are picked from multiple nationalities to fit the strategy. The same is of course true here but doesn't make it less entertaining. Though I in principle decry nationalistic things in practice I like them..

Overall an interesting tournament and something that has been missing since the previous one stopped.
ChunderBoy
Profile Joined August 2011
3242 Posts
February 01 2017 21:30 GMT
#10
china was nice
"mmr is a social construct" - tumblr
Yurie
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
11790 Posts
Last Edited: 2017-02-02 17:31:53
February 02 2017 17:31 GMT
#11
On February 02 2017 06:30 ChunderBoy wrote:
china was nice


Is it worth paying to go there once? Sadly live in Sweden so can't get the tournament to sponsor me since Alliance and Horde block me. (Not that I would make it through the EU qualifier after that :D)
BluemoonSC
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
SoCal8910 Posts
February 03 2017 18:47 GMT
#12
On February 03 2017 02:31 Yurie wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 02 2017 06:30 ChunderBoy wrote:
china was nice


Is it worth paying to go there once? Sadly live in Sweden so can't get the tournament to sponsor me since Alliance and Horde block me. (Not that I would make it through the EU qualifier after that :D)

absolutely worth it to go at least once

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPVA97DjnVq

Shanghai is beautiful. The culture there was great. I have to get through my day 3+4 photos before i post the ones I took from a temple i went to.. absolutely stunning.
LiquidDota Staff@BluemoonGG_
Maverick_2009
Profile Joined December 2014
Somewhere2002 Posts
February 03 2017 21:33 GMT
#13
On February 04 2017 03:47 BluemoonSC wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 03 2017 02:31 Yurie wrote:
On February 02 2017 06:30 ChunderBoy wrote:
china was nice


Is it worth paying to go there once? Sadly live in Sweden so can't get the tournament to sponsor me since Alliance and Horde block me. (Not that I would make it through the EU qualifier after that :D)

absolutely worth it to go at least once

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPVA97DjnVq

Shanghai is beautiful. The culture there was great. I have to get through my day 3+4 photos before i post the ones I took from a temple i went to.. absolutely stunning.

ah yes, the view from the other side across from Pearl Tower... I've been up Pearl Tower once, not a bad experience but potentially incomparable to being at the top of the Empire State
https://www.twitch.tv/deso_739
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 10h 22m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Harstem 349
ProTech79
EnDerr 76
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 14469
Calm 5206
Rain 4366
Bisu 2453
Horang2 1816
Shuttle 1456
Jaedong 1333
ajuk12(nOOB) 735
EffOrt 571
BeSt 440
[ Show more ]
Mini 357
Last 279
Soulkey 270
ZerO 259
Light 257
Snow 211
Pusan 173
hero 130
ggaemo 128
TY 86
Sharp 78
Dewaltoss 65
Shine 56
JYJ54
[sc1f]eonzerg 47
ToSsGirL 43
sSak 39
Yoon 38
Sacsri 35
Aegong 34
Mong 34
Movie 28
PianO 25
Barracks 18
IntoTheRainbow 9
zelot 8
HiyA 8
Terrorterran 4
Dota 2
qojqva2507
Gorgc1086
420jenkins667
XcaliburYe370
Fuzer 254
Counter-Strike
x6flipin634
markeloff113
edward56
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor193
Other Games
singsing3035
B2W.Neo1714
DeMusliM581
XBOCT297
crisheroes232
Lowko158
XaKoH 128
ArmadaUGS36
QueenE20
ZerO(Twitch)10
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Secondary Stream8212
Other Games
BasetradeTV10
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 11 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Other Games
• WagamamaTV163
Upcoming Events
Online Event
10h 22m
Replay Cast
12h 22m
GSL Code S
19h 52m
herO vs Zoun
Classic vs Bunny
The PondCast
20h 22m
Replay Cast
1d 10h
WardiTV Invitational
1d 21h
OSC
1d 23h
Korean StarCraft League
2 days
SOOP
2 days
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
[ Show More ]
WardiTV Invitational
2 days
Cheesadelphia
3 days
CSO Cup
3 days
GSL Code S
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
Wardi Open
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Replay Cast
5 days
RSL Revival
5 days
Cure vs Percival
ByuN vs Spirit
RSL Revival
6 days
herO vs sOs
Zoun vs Clem
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Season 17: Qualifier 2
BGE Stara Zagora 2025
Heroes 10 EU

Ongoing

JPL Season 2
BSL 2v2 Season 3
BSL Season 20
KCM Race Survival 2025 Season 2
NPSL S3
Rose Open S1
CSL 17: 2025 SUMMER
2025 GSL S2
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25
BLAST Rivals Spring 2025
MESA Nomadic Masters
CCT Season 2 Global Finals
IEM Melbourne 2025
YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025
PGL Bucharest 2025
BLAST Open Spring 2025

Upcoming

Copa Latinoamericana 4
CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
K-Championship
SEL Season 2 Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
HSC XXVII
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.